3 Key Software Tools for Success in Your Salon or Spa

Salon/spa owners and managers are constantly thinking of new ways to increase revenue. They strive to make more sales by using promotions and introducing new products and services, but what they may forget, is how to take advantage of their software system to increase their bottom-line. Valuable salon or spa softwareshould be used as a business growth tool, not just as a digital appointment book. Your salon or spa software should have various management features and reports that can be used to streamline and improve the overall health of your business. Take a look at a few ways you can grow your business using your salon or spa software.

1. Marketing Your Business

Marketing is one of the most important aspects of running any business. Ultimately, it represents your efforts in acquiring new clients and retaining them. Oftentimes, owners think marketing is simply purchasing ad space in newspapers or on billboards. Today, marketing includes promotion of your business through email, social platforms, and 2-way text reminders and confirmations. Your salon and spa management system should have the ability to create, schedule, and send emails to targeted lists as well as the ability to send appointment reminders and confirmations via 2-way SMS messaging. Consistent, proactive communication with your clients about specials, promotions, and new products/services will positively impact your brand awareness, frequency of visit, and bottom line.

2. Increasing Your Service Ticket with Up-sell, Cross-sell, and Add-ons

Your staff should be knowledgeable about the products and services they offer in order to successfully up-sell, cross-sell, and promote add-ons. An up-sell is a service upgrade from the requested service to a service of higher value, (e.g. upgrading a 60-minute massage to 90-minute massage); while a cross-sell is the sale of an additional service with an existing, (e.g. adding a facial service to a massage appointment). An add-on is the addition of a supplementary service at no extra time, but with an extra cost, (e.g. adding aromatherapy to a massage). Your salon or spa software should be able to make automatic up-sell, cross-sell, and add-on recommendations at the time an appointment is booked. This feature alerts your staff when they have an opportunity to increase the service ticket.

3. Selling and Tracking Liabilities

Gift card sales, both online and in store, increase every year, making them vital to a successful business. Selling gift cards is only part of the process. Owners must also track the outstanding liability. How many of those gift cards are being redeemed? Do you know the total amount of your current outstanding liabilities? Tracking your liabilities gives you the opportunity to reach out to clients who have not redeemed their gift cardsto come in for a chance to up-sell, cross-sell, sell retail, and turn them into a core client. When gift cards are redeemed, there is typically a 20% increase in the amount spent than the original gift card value1. Your salon and spa management software should have various reports that provide your overall outstanding liabilities, as well as information such as who made the purchase, and who the purchase was made for. By having the right reports, you can use your marketing tools to send targeted reminder emails to clients with outstanding liabilities.

Automated marketing, the ability to recommend up-sells, cross-sells, and add-ons, as well as selling and tracking liabilities, are just a few of the features your salon or spa software should have. Your software is much more than an appointment book. Your software is a business management system. Millennium offers the features discussed here, as well as many other features and tools, to help you effectively and efficiently manage and grow your business.

Want to Learn More?

Sign up for our FREE live webinar on 8 Ways to Grow Your Salon or Spa with the Right Software – A Millennium Demo and learn how you can implement small changes today that will positively impact you tomorrow. Register here and watch live on Wednesday, April 6, 2016.